1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an apparatus for storing and feeding an endless tape for storing the endless tape and feeding the stored tape at high speed. The invention also relates to a tape duplicator system for transferring recording information on a master tape to an endless tape form slave tape.
2. Description of the Background Art
In a high speed recorded tape duplicating and recording system as well as in data processing equipment utilizing such an endless tape, it is now common practice to utilize an endless tape storage apparatus in which a long length of tape is folded back and forth in a serpentine fashion in a generally rectangular shaped storage apparatus having front and back walls which are separated only slightly more than the width of the tape to be stored. In such apparatus, the tape is normally loaded from the top and caused to loop back and forth upon itself as the other end is withdrawn from the bottom of the loop pile. The tapes own weight is used to compact the serpentine loops within the storage apparatus. Such storage apparatus have been disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,542,506 to Gibson, 2,889,491 to Donald, 2,908,767 to Fritzinger and 3,201,525 to Boyden. Another proposal have been made in U.S. Pat. No. 4,000,516 to Kazuo Watanabe et al, in which a plurality of short belt conveyors are used for transferring the endless tape within the storage apparatus.
In order to solve the problems associated with the prior art set forth above, U.S. Pat. No. 4,387,843, issued to George D. Rehklau on Jun. 14, 1983, proposes an endless tape storing apparatus which includes a front wall and a rear wall separated by slightly more than the width of the tape to be stored, a pair of entry and exit openings at the top, a resilient distributing arm located proximate the entry opening a compliant length of flexible material suspended from each side of the apparatus and forming a catenary configured to conform to the bottom of the apparatus, and a compliant damper loop disposed midway down the apparatus and adjacent the exit side thereof for damping exiting tape tension fluctuations and assisting in the stacking of tape within the apparatus.
Though the Rehklau's apparatus improves the prior art apparatus, it is still not satisfactory for permitting satisfactorily high speed for desirable in a system for providing higher speed recorded tape is disclosed in co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 113,737, filed on Oct. 28, 1987 which has also been disclosed in British Patent First publication 2,198,281, which are commonly assigned to the owner of the present invention. The apparatus includes a casing which defines a strip storage space. The casing has at least one peripheral wall which is capable of oscillation. Oscillation of this wall causes an oscillation component in the tape feeding direction. The storage apparatus includes means for exerting an externally generated feeding force on the endless tape, which force includes a component in the direction of the tape feed direction for transferring the endless tape. This wall is cooperative with the force exerting means to smoothly feed the tape from the inlet of the casing to the outlet of the casing.
The prior proposed apparatus is successful is establishing successful tape transfer in the storage apparatus and thus permitting high speed tape feed. However, in such prior proposed apparatus, a drawback is encountered in that the tape in the storage means is stacked in the vicinity of the outlet of the casing. This tends to damage the tape and lowers the tape feeding ability. In order to avoid this problem, it becomes necessary to control tape transfer speed within the storage apparatus in synchronism with the tape feed speed in the recorded tape duplicating system. Therefore, it becomes necessary for adjusting the endless tape transferring speed depending upon the length of the tape to be stored in the apparatus and the tape feed speed in the duplicating system. Since the length of the endless master tape is variable depending upon the amount of information to be stored, adjustment of the tape transfer speed has to be done every time the endless tape length is varied.
In addition, in recent years, there have been developed recording tapes of varying quality. In many cases, high quality tapes, such as metal tapes, are sensitive to holding stress and are easily damaged by relatively low holding stress. Therefore, in order to prevent the tape from being damaged, it becomes necessary to adjust the tape feed speed of the storage apparatus in view of the kind of tape.